The Routledge Handbook of Religious and Spiritual Tourism provides a robust and comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the literature in this growing sub-field of tourism. This handbook is split into five distinct sections. The first section covers past and present debates regarding definitions, theories, and concepts related to religious and spiritual tourism. Subsequent sections focus on the supply and demand aspects of religious and spiritual tourism markets, and examine issues related to the management side of these markets around the world. Areas under examination include religious theme parks, the UNESCO branding of religious heritage, gender and performance, popular culture, pilgrimage, environmental impacts, and fear and terrorism, among many others. The final section explores emerging and future directions in religious and spiritual tourism, and proposes an agenda for further research. Interdisciplinary in coverage and international in scope through its authorship and content, this will be essential reading for all students, researchers, and academics interested in Tourism, Religion, Cultural Studies, and Heritage Studies.

For millennia people have travelled to religious sites for worship, initiatory and leisure purposes. Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of religious pilgrimage routes and trails around the world that are used by pilgrims as well as tourists. Indeed, many religious pilgrimage routes and trails are today used as themes by tourism marketers in an effort to promote regional economic development. Providing a holistic approach to religious pilgrimage routes and trails, this book: - Addresses important conceptual themes such as sustainable local development, regional economic development, heritage identity and management, and promoting environmentally friendly practices; - Includes global case studies to help transfer theory into good practice; - Calls for further discussion of the importance of better planning, management, and maintenance of these routes and trails, so that the positive benefits of this type of tourism development can be fully realized. An important resource for those interested in religious tourism and pilgrimage, this book is also an invaluable collection for academics and policy-makers within heritage tourism and regional development.

In recent years there has been a growth in both the practice and research of dark tourism; the phenomenon of visiting sites of tragedy or disaster. Expanding on this trend, this book examines dark tourism through the new lens of pilgrimage. It focuses on dark tourism sites as pilgrimage destinations, dark tourists as pilgrims, and pilgrimage as a form of dark tourism. Taking a broad definition of pilgrimage so as to consider aspects of both religious and non-religious travel that might be considered pilgrimage-like, it covers theories and histories of dark tourism and pilgrimage, pilgrimage to dark tourism sites, and experience design. A key resource for researchers and students of heritage, tourism and pilgrimage, this book will also be of great interest to those studying anthropology, religious studies and related social science subjects.

The remarkable growth in religious tourism across the world has generated considerable interest in the impacts of this type of tourism. Focusing here on environmental issues, this book moves beyond the documentation of environmental impacts to examine in greater depth the intersections between religious tourism and the environment. Beginning with an in-depth introduction that highlights the intersections between religion, tourism, and the environment, the book then focuses on the environment as a resource or generator for religious tourism and as a recipient of the impacts of religious tourism. Chapters included discuss such important areas as theological views, environmental responsibility, and host perspectives. Covering as many cultural and environmental regions as possible, this book provides: -An in-depth yet holistic view of the relationships between religious tourism and the environment; -A conceptual framework that goes beyond listing potential environment impacts; -A strong focus on explaining the universality of the deeper environmental issues surrounding sacredness and sacred places; -A discussion of the role of disease and health-related issues at mass religious gatherings. From a global writing team and featuring case studies spanning Europe and Asia, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students of tourism and religious studies, as well as those studying environmental issues.

Since the dawn of humanity, people have traveled in search of meaning and to petition for worldly and otherworldly blessings. In the twenty-first century, the number of people traveling to religious sacred sites on pilgrimage, for example, has increased more than at any point in human history. An increased demand for pilgrimage routes and trails with the spiritual rather than the religious walker in mind, has also led various enterprising groups and individuals to develop entirely new pilgrimage routes and trails. This book highlights this new chapter in pilgrimage and trail development with essays by pilgrimage scholars and practitioners of pilgrimage and faith-based tourism working in over ten countries. These include an examination of circular pilgrimage in The Netherlands, weird or "anti-pilgrimages" in the UK, and the revitalization of ancient trails along the Old Way to Canterbury, in the Baltic States, and on the Kumano Kodo in Japan. Entirely new trails include the Sufi Trail in Turkey, the Western Front Way in Europe, the Abraham Path in Southwest Asia, the Mormon Canadian Trail, and various new religious-themed trails in Lebanon. Human rights focused pilgrimages include one focused on peace building in Indigenous Australia, Indigenous settler pilgrimage protocols in Canada, and an emancipation pilgrimage along the Underground Railroad in the United States.